Sunday, May 11, 2008

I am happy to be able to support this effort, thanks to Nancy Rivard putting us in touch. I have been the Medical Director of Airline Ambassadors for some years, although not currently until now. Last year I helped deliver aid to Peru after the earthquake as part of the early AAI mission.

I am a medical doctor with a specialty in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. I coordinated health care in all the refugee camps in Thailand form 1979-1981 and again in 1982 with the United Nations Border Relief Operation (UNBRO) on the Thai-Cambodian border. I co-edited a book YEARS OF HORROR, DAYS OF HOPE: Responding to the Cambodian Refugee Crisis in 1986. In the mid-80's I was the Senior Physician Consultant to the AIDS Initiative for New York City's Health and Hospitals Corporation.

I founded the World Family Foundation in 1989, which has provided development aid in health and education in Cambodia and found adoptive families for over 1,000 Khmer and Thai orphans. We continue programs in education, literacy, micro-credit, and oral health inside Cambodia. In 2004 I was involved in tsunami relief in Sri Lanka and was recognized as the Red Cross' "Medical Hero" for 2005 in the Central Coast of California.

In recent years I have worked with various international volunteer efforts, including with the Flying Doctors on missions to Central America. Last year I served with the Aloha Medical Mission on the US Navy's hospital ship MERCY, (Pacific Partnership) serving in East and West Timor. I was also a month in Tibet with Nomad Medical Clinics and Buddhist Pilgrimage, as well as in the Amazon with Amazon Promise doing a needs assessment and offering medical services for remote jungle tribes. My "day job" for the past 5 years has been with Doctors On Duty, urgent-care clinics around Monterey Bay.